Like a lot of breweries, as the calendar turns toward winters Destihl releases its barrel-aged stout, the award-winning Dosvidanya. As smart marketers do, the brewery has created an event around this annual release, Dosvidanya Day. Attendees receive an allocation of various iterations of the beer (four bottles total, at least for the past two years), a few complimentary draft pours of exclusive beers, a cash bar that includes pours of the bottled beers and the opportunity to buy extra bottles. Plus live music, food from the kitchen, exclusive merch and some random surprises.
Bloomington is fairly accessible via I-55, and for folk in Chicago's western suburbs like me it's an easy two-hour drive. (And the brewery itself is just off of the expressway, at the beginning of the burgeoning Bloomington-Normal commercial strip. Seriously, this place-- home of Illinois State University -- has come a long way since I started college at a different Illinois land-grant institution 30 years ago.) It rained for the first hour, then lightened up. The day was grey but the temperatures were unseasonably warm, peaking in the mid-50s that afternoon.
I arrived about a half-hour before opening and joined the shortish line. The couple behind me were sporting caps from Elgin, Illinois's, Plank Road Tap Room, a place I've heard good things about but haven't yet been to. So I chatted them up and naturally we had a beer bud in common. Easily half the crowd was from the Chicago area, at least in part because attending Dosvidanya Day means you get access to some bottles that won't be distributed.
Doors opened promptly at 11 and we milled inside. To minimize any worry I got my bottles almost immediately and ran them out to my car. The standard allotment was one bourbon barrel aged bottle, one rye barrel aged and two bourbon barrel aged with coconut. They also had some vintage bottles for sale, so I picked up a few of last year's vanilla variant and some extra coconut bottles. (Both of my regular readers will recall that I kind of love coconut stouts.) Like Bottle Logic and Goose Island, among others, Destihl packages its BA stouts in 500ml/16.9-ounce bottles -- which some say is a bit much for solo drinking and too little for sharing with more than one other person. I personally kind of like the size myself.
Bottles secured, it was time to enjoy the day a bit. The festival is held in the brewery itself, among the brewhouse, fermenters, bottling line, etc. Attendees get a few free pours of a few beers exclusive to the event (I used all of mine on the BA tiramisu stout because #PastryIsLife) along with several cash bars offering multiple versions of the Dosvidanya that gets bottled.
Free packages of Beer Nuts were plentiful, as were sample pours of cold press coffee made from barrel-aged beans. (You bet I bought a 12-ounce bag; BA coffee beans make the kitchen smell like a rickhouse, which is a jolly good thing.) The brewery tap house and kitchen were also available.
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| Coffee! Giver of life, killer of sleeps, producer of poops.... |
I hung with a few friends who had traveled separately and chatted away while sipping my pours for an hour or so, whiling away the time before Lil Beaver Brewing opened. We bailed on the event a few hours in to see if the local liquor stores had anything cool on shelves (sadly no, though the big Chicago chain had a nice coupon that I used to buy a bottle of blended whiskey) and grab some lunch.
Lil Beaver was indeed a small space, tucked away like many startup breweries in a small industrial strip about five miles from Destihl. A bud and I each ordered a flight of four beers, with a bit of overlap between them. My favorite was the pastry stout, Cheat Day, an imperial stout with brownie batter(!) and coffee. They also had what can only be described as a pastry cream ale called Now I Know My Peach Crumble, which literally tasted like its namesake. Everything I tried there was a cut above and I grabbed a few packaged beers to go that I have yet to try. (In theory, I take a few days off from beer each week.)
On a decidedly exciting note, the brewery had dozens of barrels aging beer. My first exposure to Lil Beaver was at a beer fest where I tried Rye Whole Lot of Wonderful, a rye-barrel-aged stout with chocolate and coconut. (Have you ever had a coconut stout? They're delicious!)
Following my hour or so at Lil Beaver I headed on home, happy to have spent some time among fellow beer geeks drinking good brews and having a good time.
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